Twitter is Now on Google Search-Use it to Grow Your Business

Last month Google started serving twitter posts on google search on smart phones, making it easier for twitter content to get more eyes on it. It also allows Google search to have more new content to serve in a more timely manner. That means that if you have a twitter account and you are including keywords, your post can be served by google on the topic you discuss.  It also means that hashtags on conversations that are current topics may include your tweet.  Here is how it works:

1. If someone sees your Tweet among the search results on a trending topic or your industry, they can learn alot about your social account right away: the Twitter handle, the profile pic, & the time the Tweet was posted.
2. It’s mandatory you take a good look at your twitter profile on a smart phone and your tablets in addition to your PC or laptop and optimize your profile and check your profile for keywords that make sense.
3. Trending topic searches are more likely to show Tweets first because they are more recent and often more relevant. Remember twitter is a format that in 140 characters describes what the content is about.  So while  Tweets won’t always show up as a top result, or show up at all—it all depends on the subject of the user’s search.
4. In the official announcement of the feature, Google states that Tweets in Google searches are “a great way to get real-time info when something is happening. And it’s another way for organizations and people on Twitter to reach a global audience at the most relevant moments.”
5. So, if your brand or blog features content that adds to a discussion of a trending topic, your Tweets containing the appropriate keyword or hashtag have a chance of showing up when that topic is searched. To maximize your chances revisit some strategies on how to write engaging Tweets, and how to use trending hashtags wisely.
6.  In addition to just seeing the Tweets show up in search results, you might want to explore how a mobile audience would see your page. All the profiles on the new Twitter mobile app are responsive, but not all cover photos would look ideal on a smaller screen. Plus, keep in mind that your Tweet conversations won’t be separated from the main stream, so you still need to identify your company and your company focus the best first impression on new visitors to your page.

Download my twitter getting started guide from my facebook page to help you navigate your twitter business account. Each month I give away a different free tool.  “Like” my page to be alerted each month for next free tool. Come to my local or online FREE Social Media, Email Marketing and Strategy Classes and Webinars or one of my hands-on laptop classes to actually expedite your campaigns and develop your marketing plan or next promotion.  Would you like to try Constant Contact to grow your business? Click here to get started adding this robust tool today.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988.  Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising, is an Authorized SCORE & SBDC workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in getting help for your marketing plan or your marketing projects or you need a trainer, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com or call us at 310-791-6300.

Develop facebook Ad Strategies That Accomplish Your Goals

Facebook Advertising Can Be Cost Effective When You Target Your Market First.

When it comes to facebook paid advertising, businesses can get a lot done with very little money. But before you begin, it is key that you ask yourself a few questions first:

1. Who are you trying to reach? Before you boost your post or do display ads on facebook, determine who y0u are trying to reach with your message. It is no longer enough to reach your fans on facebook since facebook is only sharing your posts with those people it determines want to see your posts.  This has greatly reduced your reach considerably.  But if you use the advertising tools you can target the people that you want to reach most and you can profile them to find others just like your current customers.
2. Determine a region or way to define your market in order not to waste your funds.  If you just allot money and then let your ads run, you will be shooting in the dark. However you can enter your demographic profile (age, shopping habits, interests, geographic location and more) in order to spend your funds where they will do you the most good. So before you get started see what your customers or target customers have in common and select an audience that makes sense.
3. Create an ad that gets attention with a desirable price, a great image or using content or copy that really defines the action you want people to take.   Don’t just try one ad or option, try several and measure your results. With facebook advertising you can limit your overall spend and run several types of ads at the same time.  You can also see the results like in this photo.
4. Measure your results. In this example we were trying to sell unused hotel rooms so we used a post and boosted it as well as running display ads to people who were in the area for concerts in the region.
5. Use your other social media platforms to enhance your reach.   In this case we used the conversation about #Coachella using the hashtag from twitter to reach people going to or interested in going to the concert.

Want to learn more about how to use facebook advertising and social media to reach your target market? Come to my Social Media, Email Marketing and Strategy Classes and Webinars or one of my hands-on laptop bootcamps to help develop your marketing plan and your next promotion to get results. It doesn’t matter what your business is, we can find a way to design your next promotion or event effectively to accomplish your goals. Interested in using Constant Contact to grow your business? Click here to get started integrating your marketing tools today.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988.  Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising, is an Authorized SCORE & SBDC workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in getting help for your marketing plan or your marketing projects, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  

For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

Repurposing Your Content — 5 Smart Tips To Spread The Word

5 Tips on Repurposing your Newsletter or Blog or Other Content

So you have a great article or newsletter topic and you want to make the most of what it get’s you.  Researching and developing content takes time, so once you have it, it is best to re-purpose it and spread the word across your network, ads, website and blogs as well as all your social media platforms.  One of the best formats for these platforms is a 5 Tips or bullet Tips or points that you can repurpose easily and bring back to the full article.  Here are a few tips of what to do once your content is created.

1. Start by breaking down your article. Break it down to individual tips you can use when you post them on twitter and facebook separately. Always end the post with “read the full article” so the readers can be pushed back to your full article on the blog, newsletter or event.
2. Always post the content on something that you own or control.  While you may be tempted to put the full content on your social media platforms, never do it. Always use a teaser that gets your reader interested but point them to your website, blog or newsletter. There they can see your services or products along with your phone number contact info and any specials you have during that time.
3. Use images and post those on image oriented platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. By creating a graphic element that is associated with your article you can push traffic from the image site to reading the full article or information, again where they can learn more about your organization than they can from images alone.
4. Remember your call to action- what do you want them to do from there? Have a plan and even a diagram of what you want the viewer to do after they view your post or your image. Wherever you have the full article or portion of the article you link from your individual posts on social media, should include an action you want them to take that moves them to a communication to you. Always include an option that offers a further discussion by Emailing you their questions or a FREE evaluation or coupon depending on your company’s goals.
5. Repurpose everywhere.  You have taken the time to develop this article so make sure you make the most of it on blogs, chatrooms, groups, social media, Emails and any communications you send that month. Add a “Read my latest blog” to your signature line and consider asking more questions in your groups on Google+, LinkedIn or Facebook groups that end with a statement like “read this article on …). You can even add a trackable url to your posts to learn where your traffic is coming from after you post throughout your network. Find out what works and what doesn’t.

Want to learn more? Come to my  SCORE Content Laptop Workshop on Saturday April 11, in Costa Mesa. We will be reviewing the tools to spread the word and the laptop workshop will focus on developing content that you can repurpose over and over again and the networks that make the most sense to repurpose them on.  Join me at my other workshops this month on Social Media, Email Marketing, Content Development and Online Promotions.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988.  Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising, is an Authorized SCORE & SBDC workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in getting help for your marketing plan or your marketing projects, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  

For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

Content Marketing For 2015 — 5 Tips To Success

5 Tips to Get Action Using Content Marketing in 2015

Content Marketing is the practice of creating content rich articles and posts to get the most results for your business or non-profit. It starts with the premise that I know my target market and therefore I can include content (words, articles, tips) that they are likely to want to learn or hear about from an expert.  By using words and content to drive the public to your website, ad or blog, your strategically placed stories and content with keywords and descriptions will attract more people like the ones you want the most. Here are a few tips of best practices for content marketing:

1. Create Trustworthy Articles & Posts. Remember that your number one goal on social media and online sites is to build trust for your organization. So ensure that every post or article you write is one that you would say helps create trust in the reader about you or your company.   60% of business social media posts should be helpful to the target market and provide them with something that saves them time, money or provides them with information they would not find easily on their own.
2. Keywords make your content easier to find.  The reality is that anything online is algorithm driven and popularity is important. If search engines are to find your thought provoking information, quotes or fact finding articles, you need to include words that people would use to search for that content. Also on your social media sites, you need keyword strong posts so that in a few seconds, I can figure out what you do or what your social media pages offer and see that I have arrived at the right place to learn more about what I am seeking.
3. Do Your Current Social Media Pages Descriptions Use Keywords? Take a look at the descriptions and categories for your facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram or your blogs and see what keywords are in your page description or about us section.  Edit the description to include those keywords that best describe your business or non-profit so it can be found and read more often.  Use the kinds of words the public uses to find your business. Use their common terms.
4. What you want to get out of your posts? What pages on your website or blog would you send your reader to in order to find what they are most interested in learning about? Don’t be afraid to repurpose other pages that support your business, like industry information or articles in local news that reinforce the need for your type of business or non-profit.  Example: It is fine to post an article from the Times online that talks about air quality if you are selling a product that helps reduce the impact of pollution. Even if that article does not mention your company, it may underscore the need for a product like yours.
5. Create a helpful newsletter that is a resource for your client & your prospects.  Your news articles should address the needs of potential customers and past customers so you may want an article on maintenance of the product you sell and another on the benefits of the product and how it affects other concerns your typical consumers face.  A balanced newsletter needs to be about what your consumers are concerned about so they see your newsletter as a solution source for them instead of being a vendor’s monthly ad. Provide them with free advice on the topics and keywords they are searching for most. The keywords will help you rank better with search engines and on social media.  Remember that a business that buys parts from you to help sell their products, is also interested in success stories about businesses like them and any tips you can provide to help them save time, money or find something that is helpful for their next step.  Be that source and they will subscribe to and keep in touch longer.

Want to learn more? Come to my  Social Media, Email Marketing and Strategy Classes  or one of my hands-on laptop bootcamps to help develop your marketing plan and your next promotion to get results. It doesn’t matter what your business is, we can find a way to design your next promotion or event effectively to accomplish your goals. Interested in using Constant Contact to grow your business? Click here to get started integrating your marketing tools today.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988.  Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising, is an Authorized SCORE & SBDC workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in getting help for your marketing plan or your marketing projects, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  

For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

Linkedin Showcase Page Replaces Product Page Tabs

Linkedin has eliminate the ability for users to create product pages in their company profile. While they are still supporting your product tabs you cannot edit or add to them. So you may want to start by creating your products in a showcase format.  First, please review the requirements specifications for creating a Showcase Page below.

LInkedin Showcase page

Requirement and specifications:

You must be a Company Page administrator in order to create a Showcase Page. Other information you’ll need:

• Showcase Page name
• Showcase Page description (75-200 characters)
• Industry
• Name of at least 1 Showcase Page administrator
• Hero Image (recommended)

Learn more about the specifications for the elements of a Showcase Page.

If you’re an admin of the parent Company Page, here’s how you can create a child Showcase Page:

1. Click the down arrow next to the blue Edit button on the Company Page
2. Select Create a Showcase Page.
3. Enter a page name and assign administrators for the Showcase Page.
   • You must be a 1st degree connection in order to assign someone as a Showcase Page administrator.
4. Click Create.
   • The page exists and can be edited at this point, but won’t appear in search or in the linked pages shown for your Company Page yet.
5. Either you or the administrators you’ve assigned can finalize the page details, and then clickPublish to make it public.

To get back to your Showcase page, you can search for it from the top of any LinkedIn Page or go to your parent Company Page and select the Showcase page in the page tree along the right rail.

Note: You can create up to 10 Showcase Pages through your Company Page.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988. Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising is an Authorized SCORE workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in a quote or more information on a mobile website email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

10 Tips to Mobile Website Design

Do you have a mobile website? Do you need one? Before you answer that, consider these questions for yourself or your target market (the folks you are trying to reach): Do you use your mobile to search for companies or services you need? Are you at home or on the run? How much time do you have when you do that search? How much patience do you have to navigate that website?

Today website traffic has changed and if you have been looking at your results you will have noticed that up to 60% of your audience (and more in some counties) are accessing your website with their mobile device. The younger the target market, the more this is true, but without exception every American demographic is using mobile sites to access more companies every day. So how do you design your mobile friendly website? With your mobile user in mind. Follow these 10 tips:

1. Simplify. Why create a mobile version of your website if you just copy your website? Create a more functional site.

2. At the top and bottom of your site, show a quick button or menu item to view the full site.

3. Keywords are still the key.  So don’t forget to use the 3 keywords you want to be ranked for within your mobile website.

4. Simplify your menu system into the action items that you want your customers or site visitors to use most.

5. Make sure your mobile site is not all graphics as that will not help you with Google search. At the same time, don’t overdo the content, as that will not be a site anyone wants to tackle while in line at the supermarket. The key is balance.

6. Make sure your call to action and any sales or specials are part of that mobile site. People are shopping on their phones and you don’t want to make them work hard to learn you are having a sale.

7. No matter what you sell or offer, it is key that the action you want your visitors to take is a menu item or button on your mobile website. Don’t assume they will click through to your full website to fill out a form without a button to do so.

8. Make sure you add a tag from google analytics to track your mobile website traffic and see how they are using your site.

9. If you have a store, make sure your link to your shopping cart works seamlessly. There are apps that can help so use them. The shopping experience needs to be simple.

10. Get help if you need it. Like your website, this is no place to go cheap. Doing it yourself may be okay but you need fantastic. If you use a service where you drop in your site, consider if that site is implementing these keys and if you need help defining or creating your mobile site, contact a company like mine to give you a quote. It can’t hurt to ask and I guarantee you, we will be providing helpful advice that will ensure you will get better results than non-custom sites offer. In example, these are only 10 items on our 100 item list to make a mobile website work best!

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988. Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising is an Authorized SCORE workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in a quote or more information on a mobile website email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

Can Gmail Tabs Affect Your Email Marketing Results?

Gmail has a new inbox and it may affect how your Emails get read even by your own opt in newsletter subscribers. So it is key that you take a look at your lists to see who your Gmail subscribers are (people who’s Emails end in gmail.com).  And if you have a lot, follow my suggestions below to ensure your Emails go in the right tab for easy reading.

The change that I am talking about is Gmail’s new inbox tabs where Gmail automatically sorts Emails into tabs and separates Emails sent one-to-many (any Email you are not sending one at a time) they are put into either the updates or the promotion tabs instead of the primary tab. That enables the recipient of the emails

GMail’s new tabs to sort Email

to only see Emails from their friends in the first Email General tab and puts everything else into the other tabs. In order for your Email to be in the first tab, you need to get your subscribers and clients to move your Emails into the first tab as soon as possible. Once they are moved one time, the rest of your communications to them will fall into the first tab instead of the updates and promotion tabs.

Although it’s still too early to tell what impact the new tabs will have on your email marketing, here are some steps you can take to make sure your Emails are well read by your Gmail subscribers.

1) The first thing you can do is to continue to send relevant, valuable content to your subscribers. This is content people will look for regardless of which tab Gmail sorts it into.  If your content is worth following, your subscribers will move it to a tab that is best for them.

NOTE: From what we can tell so far, it does look like Constant Contact emails will show up in either the Promotions or Updates tab at this time.

2) Next, you may consider sending an email to your Gmail subscribers showing them how to move your emails from the promotion or update tabs to the Primary tab.

Here’s a sample email that you can modify to match the voice of your company or copy and paste (just be sure to make changes where appropriate) and then send it to your Gmail subscribers. It explains the recent changes to Gmail’s inbox and what your customers should do to move your emails into their Primary tab in order to be sure to see them monthly.

Here’s the sample email you can use:

*Change the bold sections appropriately for your situation before sending

Subject line: Did Gmail put this email where you want it?

[Dear customer/first name],

As you may know, Gmail recently rolled out a newly designed inbox. If you’ve been using the new design, you also know your emails are now being sorted into three tabs — Primary, Social, and Promotions — with two additional tabs, Updates and Forums, available from the Configure inbox section of your Gmail Settings.

You may also have noticed that [my/our] emails, maybe even this one, now appear in your Promotions or Updates tab. If you’d rather the emails [I/we] send end up in your Primary tab it’s simple to tell Gmail where these emails should go.

Here’s how:

*Drag and drop my email into your Primary tab and click “yes” when Gmail asks if you’d like future messages from this email address to go to your Primary tab.

That’s it!

[I/We] hope this information helps. If you have any additional questions please let [me/us] know.

Thanks!
[Your name/Business Name]

That should do the trick!

Now here’s how to create a list of your Gmail subscribers

Go to the Contacts section of your Constant Contact or your Email account. Search for email addresses ending in “gmail.com” and save the search results as a new list which you can label “Gmail Subscribers.” Then you’ll be able to send this email to just your Gmail subscribers while your subscribers using other Email services are not confused.

Aside from teaching your customers about Gmail’s new inbox, it has never been more important to offer relevant, helpful content that your customers feel is helpful and relevant to their lives. Do not just send out coupons and or specials since you customers are not always in the market for buying. You still want to keep in touch in between sales with advice and tips to make their lives better. So consider including the type of information that is helpful so that your customers and leads will be motivated into moving your monthly or bimonthly communications into their primary tab.

3) Remember that Gmail is also sorting social media in a tab, so be sure to share your newsletter on your social media using social share on top of your Email. It helps your Emails get read by non-subscribers and friends of your fans, as well as allowing them to share your newsletters with their friends using their social network. And make sure you have a “sign up for your newsletter” in your newsletters so anyone seeing it in a friend’s social newsfeed can sign up to get your tips and specials. And always remember to put your phone number so they can reach you for your services any way they like to communicate.

If you do get sorted into the promotion or update tabs, remember that readers will still be looking there when they want to purchase or if they are looking for an Email but it will not default to their primary tab unless you take some action.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988. Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising is an Authorized SCORE workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. For more information on how best to help your Emails get read and grow your list, contact us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.  Let us know if you are interested in getting a FREE 60 Day trial of Constant Contact or if you are interested in a Webmatch Template to help your company be more successful with your EMail Marketing starting today.For more information about her company, visit tailormadeadvertsing.com.

Content & 5 Tips on Copywriting in a Social Media World

When you are ready to create content for an online project or even for a traditional media outlet, there are several tips you may want to consider to save you time and be more effective:

Copywriting and content in a social media world

1. Keep your target market in mind. When you write, consider who you are writing to and what their concerns are in getting information about their interests. If you have people sign up for a monthly newsletter, make sure you are providing monthly news and not just an online ad for your services or products. it needs elements to make the recipient happy they subscribed or they will unsubscribe and you will lose that contact and their respect.

2. You do not always need to provide original content. Consider re-purposing content from a blog or previous article you created and link back to that source. Make sure that if you link an article or information from a news service you subscribe to, that you credit them for the information. It is enough for you save your recipients time in providing the information, it does not have to be your content but it is best for you to let them know the source.

3. Keywords are the key for any writer today. Make sure you have agreement with your management as to the keywords you want to be associated with and then make sure your content is tagged with those keywords so you can be easily associated with that conversation.  Make sure that even if you are writing a brochure you include the keywords in simple conversational English (or whatever language your target market speaks) so it is clear what service or product you provide and how that relates to the topic.

4. Indirect is better. Don’t think your company or you always need to be the title story of your content. In fact some of the best read stories are focused on someone else and that makes you great by association. Companies that compliment and credit employees for being their strengths have a higher reputation of trust and that is a hurdle any business needs to overcome in order to do business with someone.

5. Cross pollinate your content and re-purpose it everywhere. These days you need content for every social media platform as well as communication within your company and externally with public. So when you write a blog with 5 tips for some topic, use each tip as a post on your social media with a link to the full blog which I hope you will link to your website. It is your bricks and motor store online so make sure fans visit it to learn all they can about your organization.

For more information on content and copywriting, contact us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.